1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and structure to continuously evaluate microprocessor performance in the field and alter the parameters of the integrated circuit as performance degrades.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently an additional amount of margin (additional guardband) is added to the performance criteria of every part when it is tested at the end of the manufacturing process. This assumes that each part is going to be negatively influenced by the degrade in performance, which is not realistic because the chip will only need the added margin if the critical path(s) are negatively effected, which does not always occur. The invention described below addresses these issues.